Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

Product Information

As the book progresses, however, things get murkier. Philosophically, one thing you can say about Green is that he is consistent in his reductionist stance. Greene believes that everything can be explained—at least theoretically—with reference only to the laws and motions of fundamental particles. He does admit, however, that the prospect of actually doing this is virtually impossible, as the human mind (and for that matter any computer) does not have the cognitive or computational capacity to make such calculations.

These discussions include consideration of gravity, repulsive gravity; dark energy, electromagnetic and nuclear forces, the Higgs field, and other such things that physicists love. No matter what, however, the universe will ultimately disintegrate into widely separated teeny tiny particles that are randomly drifting around. Even today’s plain old scientists, however, remain philosophers of a sort. “In the fullness of time all that lives will die.” So begins Until the End of Time, Brian Greene’s ambitious attempt to reclaim science’s philosophical subtext and raise it to the level of conversational, often personal, and — despite that portentous beginning — witty text.From the world-renowned physicist and bestselling author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, a captivating exploration of deep time and humanity's search for purpose

Brian Greene is many people's favorite expositor of the more fascinating yet impenetrable topics in modern physics and his previous volumes have done so in very readable prose while at the same time maintaining a sense of wonder for the topic. This latest volume is much more meditative and much more reflective than any of his other works. Also, there is not a new way of thinking or a new theory presented here, rather what is examined are the necessary notions of time that are a by product of study of physics and cosmology. If he is right, of course, this is pretty amazing, especially since that would mean that the physical laws have conspired over billions of years so that he, Brain Greene, can serve as the messenger of such a profound insight. But I think you can forgive me for thinking that this may not be the case. Consciousness and free will are still open questions that we are nowhere near understanding. Full Book Name: Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving UniverseThe point then, is that when evaluating free will there is much to be gained by shifting attention from a narrow focus on ultimate cause to a broader perusal of human response. Our freedom is not from physical laws that are beyond our ability to affect, our freedom is to exhibit behaviors—leaping, thinking, imagining, observing, deliberating, explaining, and so on—that are not available to most other collections of particles.Human freedom is not about willed choice, everything science has so far revealed has only strengthened the case that such volitional intercession in the unfolding of reality does not exist. Instead, human freedom is about being released from the bondage of an impoverished range of responses that has long constrained the behavior of the inanimate world.” It is worth noting what I wrote nearly two years ago in my very favorable review of Miller’s book – in the interest of full disclosure I was one of those Campus Crusade students who had organized his very first debate against a creationist – since nothing remotely like Miller’s writing exists within Greene’s humanist manifesto that is at the core of “Until The End of Time”.: